Spoonflower Custom Fabric Review

Custom fabric used to be a fantasy, unless you wanted to print it yourself. I did some research on the subject once and found that a “small run” of fabric would be something around a minimum of 500 to 1,000 yards, and most fabric printing houses won’t even do that small of a run. Even if it cost $1 a yard (and you can be assured it’d be more than that), you’d need to cough up $500-1000 all at once for one single print. My wallet laughed in my face.

Enter Spoonflower, offering completely custom fabric printing on a variety of fabric options. And you can order ONE YARD AT A TIME (they also have test swatches and fat quarters!).  Awesome! Amazing! I’m nearly wetting myself with excitement!

Not only can you order your own custom designed fabric, you can set up a little spoonflower shop and offer your fabric designs to the public! Every time your fabric sells, you get spoonflower credit!

About a year ago, Spoonflower had a free sample promotion, and I jumped at the chance to test it out. I could have ordered one of the thousands of awesome designs already available on their site, but I couldn’t resist the idea of designing my own fabric! So I did a little reconfiguring of the WhatTheCraft background, uploaded it, and ordered my free sample of WTC intarsia print fabric!

Crafty Intarsia print by smarmyclothes is available here.

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Happy Holidays from WhatTheCraft.com!

This post brought to you by Pier 1 Imports. All opinions are 100% mine.

Last year I was feeling a little Scrooge-ish and didn’t even bother putting my tree up. Bah Humbug. But there’s nothing like a mini shopping spree to put you in the Xmas spirit!

My Xmas tree has an enchanted forest theme going on… at least that’s what I’m going for. I’ve got owls, leaves, trees and gingerbread. I found some great additions to my ornament collection at Pier 1:

a hummingbird

a glittery birds nest

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SQUEE! Video Tutorials coming soon!

I am super excited to announce that video tutorials will soon be a regular feature here at WhatTheCraft.com!

I know some of your have been asking for this for a while now, and I finally invested in a video camera. I will soon be the proud own of a Creative Labs Vado HD.

I also thought I’d share a little secret… I bought the camera with money I made from SponsoredTweets! If you have Twitter, I suggest you give SponsoredTweets a shot, because you’re basically being paid to Tweet! You name a price and get paid to tweet ads. You have complete control over what ads you accept and what ads you don’t want AND you get to write your own ads, so you don’t have to worry about your Twitter feed looking like it’s been taken over by a spam bot.

Just think of all the fabric you could buy with a little extra free cash from something like this….

Sewing Machine Number 8!

Sewing machines now outnumber The Living in our house 2 to 1.

A few years ago when Mr. Smarmy and I first bought our house, my parents bought this sewing machine for me. It’s a vintage Singer Red Eye treadle (i.e. pre-electric) machine. Nicknamed Red Eye because it has really elaborate red and gold designs on it.

My dad wanted to refinish the walnut cabinet, so the cast iron treadle part and the sewing machine came home with me and waited for the rest of their parts to be finished. Yesterday was the day!

Here’s how the machine was brought to me:

Keep in mind I’ve never seen it put together… my dad bought it in pieces so HE’s never seen it put together. And there are NO INSTRUCTIONS.

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AttackoftheCraft!

Check out the interwebs’ newest craft discussion forum and WhatTheCraft partner site, AttackoftheCraft.com!

AttackoftheCraft welcomes Crafters, DiY Artisans, and Lovers of Handmade. Come share your DiY knowledge, ask a crafty question, find supply resources, or just hang around and chat!

 

To celebrate their debut, AttackoftheCraft is having a contest:
The member who refers the most people in the month of April will win an $80 gift card to Joann Fabrics or Amazon.com!

Sign up, get your referral code, and spread the word!

Sewing Machines for $200-300

This is Part 4 of the Official WhatTheCraft Sewing Machine Recommendation List!

How did I choose the machines on this list? Online consumer ratings, my favorite shopping buddy.

These machines were selected because they not only had good ratings…  they also had a lot of ratings and were at least decently rated at more than one of the review sites. A 5 star machine with 1 reviewer could be a fluke. Likewise, a 5 star machine on Amazon that has 2 stars on Ebay reviews is not a machine I’d gamble on.

*I should mention that unless otherwise noted, I have not personally tested these machines.*

The recommendations have been broken up into several groups by price.

$200 – 300

Janome 115215 / Kenmore 19233 – $290 refurbished on Overstock

PatternReview rating: 26 would recommend, 2 might recommend, 2 would not recommend

Overstock rating: 4.8 stars, 13 reviews

Sears rating: 5 stars, 62 reviews

Specs: 215 stitch functions, buttonholer, zipper foot, free arm capability, drop in bobbin

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Sewing Machines for $150-200

This is Part 3 of the Official WhatTheCraft Sewing Machine Recommendation List!

How did I choose the machines on this list? Online consumer ratings, my favorite shopping buddy.

These machines were selected because they not only had good ratings…  they also had a lot of ratings and were at least decently rated at more than one of the review sites. A 5 star machine with 1 reviewer could be a fluke. Likewise, a 5 star machine on Amazon that has 2 stars on Ebay reviews is not a machine I’d gamble on.

*I should mention that unless otherwise noted, I have not personally tested these machines.*

The recommendations have been broken up into several groups by price.

$150-200

Brother CS6000i - $169 on Amazon

Amazon rating: 4.5 stars, 258 reviews

PatternReview rating: 2 would recommend, 1 might recommend, 1 would not recommend

Ebay rating: 5 stars, 27 reviews

Overstock rating: 4.6 stars, 264 reviews

Specs: 100 stitch functions, operates with or without foot control, buttonholer, zipper foot, free arm capability, drop in bobbin, speed control

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Sewing Machines for $100-150

This is Part 2 of the Official WhatTheCraft Sewing Machine Recommendation List!

How did I choose the machines on this list? Online consumer ratings, my favorite shopping buddy.

These machines were selected because they not only had good ratings…  they also had a lot of ratings and were at least decently rated at more than one of the review sites. A 5 star machine with 1 reviewer could be a fluke. Likewise, a 5 star machine on Amazon that has 2 stars on Ebay reviews is not a machine I’d gamble on.

*I should mention that unless otherwise noted, I have not personally tested these machines.*

The recommendations have been broken up into several groups by price.

$100-$150

Janome 11590 / Kenmore 16231 – $145 refurbished on Overstock

PatternReview rating: 24 would recommend, 1 might recommend, 2 would not recommend

Overstock rating: 4.7 stars, 15 reviews

Specs: 90 stitch functions, presser foot adjustment, buttonholer, zipper foot, free arm capability, drop-in bobbin

Brother XR9000 – $135 refurbished on Overstock

Amazon rating: 4.5 stars, 3 reviews

Overstock rating: 4.7 stars, 28 reviews

Specs: 120 stitch functions, operates with or without foot control, buttonholer, zipper foot, free arm capability and larger quilting table attachment

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Sewing Machines for Under $100

After much searching, noting, and head scratching, I have assembled the Official WhatTheCraft Sewing Machine Recommendation List!

How did I choose the machines on this list? Online consumer ratings, my favorite shopping buddy.

These machines were selected because they not only had good ratings…  they also had a lot of ratings and were at least decently rated at more than one of the review sites. A 5 star machine with 1 reviewer could be a fluke. Likewise, a 5 star machine on Amazon that has 2 stars on Ebay reviews is not a machine I’d gamble on.

*I should mention that unless otherwise noted, I have not personally tested these machines.*

The recommendations have been broken up into several groups by price.

Under $100

Janome 11574 / Kenmore 16221 – $99 refurbished on Overstock

(Kenmore and Janome are made by the same manufacturer & sold under different brand names)

Sears rating: 5 stars, 30 reviews

PatternReview rating: 5 would recommend, 0 might recommend, 0 would not recommend

Overstock rating: 4.8 stars, 36 reviews

Specs: 74 stitch functions, presser foot adjustment, buttonholer, zipper foot, free arm capability, drop-in bobbin

Brother XL2600I - $90 on Amazon

Amazon rating: 4 stars, 68 reviews

PatternReview rating: 1 would recommend, 1 might recommend, 0 would not recommend

Ebay rating: 4 stars, 9 reviews

Overstock rating: 4.6 stars, 147 reviews

Specs: 59 stitch functions, buttonholer, zipper foot, free arm capability, drop-in bobbin, electronic speed control, 25 year limited warranty

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Which Sewing Machine Should I Buy?

And by I, I mean you.

It’s one of the most common questions in the sewing world, heard from beginners and seasoned seamstresses alike.

A few notes about what to expect from your sewing machine:

If you are buying new, you should not expect a machine under about $150 to be able to handle heavy duty work, i.e. several layers of fabric, denim, fleece, etc. I really wouldn’t expect any new machine under about $300 to be able to handle heavy duty work, at least not very well, though some machines will claim to be heavy duty anyway.

I must  advise against buying sewing machines at Walmart. Walmart contracts (and often forces) companies to outsource the manufacturing of their machines to Walmart’s cheaper factories. The result is a machine with the same brand name and model number as sold in other stores, but of lesser quality (thus the lower price).  I learned this fact the hard way.

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